1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of telecommunication devices and services and more specifically, the invention is directed to a method and apparatus for configuring communication parameters on a wireless device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices can communicate with other devices using various networking technologies. Some of those technologies include mobile communications standards such as 3G, 4G, WiMAX, and the like. Another such network technology, 802.11, represents a set of wireless networking standards that was promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The 802.11 family (i.e., 802.11 legacy, 802.11g, 802.11n, and the like) includes multiple over-the-air modulation techniques that all use the same basic protocol. The 802.11 family facilitates the transmission and reception of data between two or more computers (e.g., servers, laptops, and the like), networking devices (e.g., adapters, gateways, routers, access points, and the like) and/or mobile devices (e.g., Bluetooth devices, Personal Desktop Assistants, mobile phones, and the like). Wi-Fi is used to describe a networking interface of computing devices that are coupled to a wireless local area network built on 802.11.
To access a wireless local area network, a device may scan for and communicate with a wireless access point (e.g., a hotspot) supplied and maintained by a local Wi-Fi provider to access higher tiers of the network (e.g., a gateway, a backhaul device, a backbone network, and the like). However, the security or trustworthiness of said Wi-Fi provider may be suspect. Thus, a user of a mobile device may not be comfortable transferring certain types of information, or accessing certain types of application (such as banking applications), over these unsecure/untrusted network access points.
Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus for determining a security level of an access point and configuring communication parameters on a wireless device to better control how data is transferred over secure and unsecure network access points.